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Tuesday, 17 May 2016

** BLOG TOUR ** Anything for Her by Jack Jordan

I am delighted today to be taking part in the blog tour for Anything for Her. This book was on my top reads of 2015, and I think its new look will make it even more of a success.

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.

Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress, and soon, Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter.

Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. Has Brooke run away? Or has she been taken against her will? And can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began?

If she mentions that night, she will incriminate her daughter for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find Brooke; and if she has been abducted, the person who took her may come for Louise, too.

Sometimes the past comes back to kill you.

~~~~~~
I am thrilled that Jack was able to stop by and answer a few questions today. I welcome him here and wish him every success with the book.

1. Where
is your favourite place to write and is there any particular time that works
better for you?

It’s such a cliché, but my favourite place
to write is my local coffee shop. Writing can be a lonely profession, so writing
in a room full of people while having my own headspace is really beneficial for
me. I find I’m more productive when writing in this setting (and I get to drink
my favourite coffee, too!).

I’m no use to anyone
in the morning, so I begin writing in the afternoon and work into the evening.

2. Where
do your ideas for your books come from?

Different plots come from different sources.
A sentence in one book can inspire me to write a whole novel; a film about
romance can somehow spark a bloody thriller in my mind; a stray thought can grow
into an entire storyline; a small exchange between strangers can conjure a
burst of ideas. Personal experiences certainly work their way into my plots,
and true stories from others are really inspiring. Most of the time, my ideas
come to me before I fall asleep (hence the need to work from a coffee shop!). I
let my imagination run wild, and countless ideas present themselves.

3.Are
there any characters that you would like to develop further in future, or a
particular theme you would like to write about?

After writing Anything for Her, I had a lot
of readers asking if I would continue to tell the stories of the remaining
characters. Although I considered it, in the end I decided to leave their fates
up to each individual reader.

I try to steer clear from creating a
series. As a reader, I love to continue
reading a character’s journey, but as a writer, I want to have as much creative
freedom as possible, and I personally feel that a series would be
counterproductive for me. My protagonists are vastly different from each other,
with completely different struggles, so I like to allow them to tell their own
stories without overlapping with others.When it comes to themes, I feel it
is important to write about things that are important. Some themes are
relatively quiet in my plots, but they are present. In the future, I plan to
feature social issues that I feel need to be addressed.

4.Are
you currently writing anything else?

I’m currently writing two novels (I know,
I’m crazy!). I always have about ten novels waiting to be written, with new
stories cropping up and jumping the queue. This time, I have two stories that
can’t wait any longer: the first is my third thriller featuring my third female
protagonist, and the other is a new adventure of mine, taking the form of
contemporary horror (nothing supernatural or otherworldly – don’t panic!). It
will feature my usual thriller-pace, but will allow me to explore new
boundaries. Luckily, my writing is known to be quite dark, so dipping into the
contemporary horror genre won’t be too much of a leap.

It’s become the norm for writers to
stick to one genre for their whole careers, or write under pseudonyms should
they wish to explore other territories. Although I understand that the reason
is for an author’s brand, I miss the days when writers could present vastly
different stories over their careers. Margaret Atwood has written dystopian
fiction, a historical murder mystery, and literary fiction, to name a few,
completely free from restrictions from her agent and publisher. It is this sort
of freedom that I want and need as a creative. I don’t want to be known as just
a thriller writer, but an all-rounded storyteller.

5.Which
Writers inspire you?

For my dark thrillers, the writers that
inspire me are the likes of Karin Slaughter, Mo Hayder, and Shirley Jackson
(The Lottery is a masterpiece that every writer can learn from!).

6.Which
book would you most likely give as a gift or recommend to other people?

Bird Box by Josh Malerman. I read the book
earlier this year, and it has become one of my all-time favourite books.

7.Could
you share with us something that other people don’t necessarily know about you?

I’m a passionate advocate for animal rights
and opposed to animal agriculture, living a vegan lifestyle for the animals and
the environment (I sound like Leonardo Dicaprio in his Oscars acceptance
speech!).

8.If
you could have written any book from the past, which would it be?

Without a doubt: Gone with the Wind. Despite
the racism being difficult to digest, I adore this 1000-paged story, and
consider it to be my all-time favourite book.

‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a
damn.’ **shivers**

9. What
do you like to do in your spare time?

Reading is my ultimate pastime. If I’m not
reading, I’m secretly thinking about how long I have until I’m reunited with my
current book.

Jack Jordan’s debut thriller, Anything for Her, is available now, and his anticipated second
thriller, My Girl, is available 4th
July 2016.

Thank you!

You’re very welcome! J x

If all that wasn't enough to make you want to read Anything for Her, I would like to reiterate my review:

In all
honesty I did not know what to expect as I would think that this is on of the
few self published books that I have read. Something about the cover design and
the synopsis just drew me in and I just had to find out more.

I can say
that this is a thriller of an extremely high standard. It had me hooked from
page one. It was taut with a pace that just didn't taper off for a
second.

This is
clever and skillful writing and the plot is weaved together intricately. As the
events of the night the changed Louise's life slowly come to light bit by bit,
we are given small glimpses at first and then it all starts to unravel almost
at the same rate at Louise's emotions.

There is
just enough mystery to keep the reader guessing and engaged to find out what
happens and a few red herrings in there to throw you off the scent.

The author
has created some despicable characters, but characters that jump off of the
page for all of their nuances. I could feel myself feeling sorry for Louise's
Son Dominic, an innocent and young bystander drawn into the cruelty of the
adults.

The ending of this book is superb and although I thought I had an idea where it
was going, it went that little bit further than I had bargained for. To say
more will spoil it for others. If you want to know more then you are just going
to have to buy it and read it.

Highly recommended and Jack Jordan is certainly a writer to watch out for.

About the Author:

Jack Jordan lives in East Anglia, England. He is an introvert disguised as an extrovert, an intelligent person who can say very unintelligent things, and a self-confessed bibliomaniac with more books than sense. 'Anything for Her' is Jack Jordan's debut novel.

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About Me

A long term love affair with books started when I was a small child. It started with The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and has moved on since then. To me a book will always be made of paper. Reading a book is an experience, the smell of the book, the feel of it and the wonderful places and things that you can experience between those pages.